Throughout the world today there are innumerable pull devices which are used to open doors, drawers or cabinets. Classic pull devices include surface mounted knobs, handles or pulls of wide ranging functional or artistic designs. For the purpose of this discussion, all of the aforementioned will be referred to as handles and the application will be described as that of a door handle on an electronic cabinet. One skilled in the art will readily recognize that the invention in its broadest form is also applicable to drawers, component or tool boxes or many other storage devices.
The simplest of handles may be either a knob or D-shaped handle attached to the door by means of screwing directly to the door face or with screw(s) penetrating from the rear door face and connecting to the handle. The handle may employ internal threads which are engaged by machine screws from the rear face of the door. Alternatively, the handle may employ one or more threaded shafts which penetrates and is attached to the door face with a corresponding number of threaded nuts. These handles typically project from the door face and may constitute an obstruction hazard. The hazard may cause operator injury or result in damage to the handle. The hazard is usually minimized, but not totally eliminated, by rounding the shape of the handle. In the case of small doors/drawers, the extended nature of these handles also effectively blocks some portion of the door/drawer face. Therefore, where it is desired to emblazon a manufacturer's logo or other label on the door, e.g., a faceplate, these handles may obscure part or all of the label.
In some applications, limited floor space may dictate the overall depth of a cabinet. For example, safety may require an aisle or access space of a minimum width in front of the cabinet. In the case of the classic handle which protrudes from the cabinet door, this protrusion depth must be added to the actual cabinet depth to determine the overall depth, and subsequently the effective aisle width. Thus valuable floor space across the entire width of the cabinet is sacrificed merely because the handle protrudes 1 to 2 inches at one location.
To truly minimize the obstruction hazard, recessed (flush mounted) handles have been developed. These handles take the form of a ring or D-shaped handle which is hinged and spring loaded or gravity operated to the retracted (recessed) position. Operating the handle involves inserting one or more fingers in the recess under the handle and withdrawing the handle to the extended position. These handles are much more mechanically involved than the simple handle, and therefore are more expensive to manufacture. Recessing the door face is required to make room for the handle mechanism when installing a recessed handle. This is a much more involved process than installing a simple handle. Recessed handles consume an even greater area of the door face than the simple handles described above, thus making even less area available for the faceplate with a manufacturer's logo or label. When planning a cabinet installation in a small room, a projecting handle must be included in the footprint of the cabinet. With a retractable or recessed handle, the cabinet can be made deeper for the same overall footprint.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a retractable handle which minimizes the obstruction hazard, is simple and low in cost to manufacture and install, and minimizes surface obstruction of the drawer face when retracted.